Condoleezza Rice on Civil Rights

Secretary of State

Urges respect & sensitivity in same-sex marriage debate

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged respect and sensitivity in the debate over same-sex marriage. When asked her own views on the subject, however, she ducked the question.

"This is an issue that can be debated and can be discussed in our country
with respect for every human being," Rice told the News & Record of Greensboro, N.C. "When we get into difficult debates about social policy, we get into difficult debates that touch people's lives. The only thing that I ask is that
Americans do it with a kind of sensitivity that real individuals and real human beings are involved here."

In a major defeat for President Bush and other Republicans who hope the issue will rally GOP voters for the November elections, the
Senate rejected by a wide margin last week a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. Asked for her opinion on the amendment, Rice told the paper, "This is not my area of expertise or, frankly, my area of concentration at this point."

Source: Advocate.com GLBT news site
Jun 16, 2006

Message of her candidacy: no ceiling for blacks

Wouldn't a Condoleezza Rice candidacy change America? The very fact that an African American woman could actually become president would send a powerful message to every minority child that there is no more ceiling, no more limit for black Americans in
elective politics.

The stain that began to spread through our land when the first slaves landed at Jamestown, VA, would be erased. Condi's election would be the last battle of the Civil War, the last civil rights demonstration, the end of a saga that
has haunted us since our nation was born. In a land where the signs once read "No Irish need apply," wasn't the election of John F. Kennedy the death knell of anti-Catholic bigotry?

If the civil rights movement of the 1960s was animated by the haunting
lyrics and melody of the song "We Shall Overcome," electing Rice to the White House would send a very different message: "We have overcome." And that, apart from Condi's obvious merits as a possible president, might just be worth voting for.

Supports college affirmative action, as beneficiary herself

Rice was under pressure to increase the number of tenured female and minority faculty. Rather than bow to the pressures, Rice charted a centrist course. Admitting she was a product of affirmative action,
Rice endorsed using racial and gender preferences in hiring faculty. "I am myself a beneficiary of a Stanford strategy that took affirmative action seriously, that took a risk in taking a young Ph.D. from the University of Denver."

Yet, as much as she backed affirmative action in hiring faculty, she strongly opposed it in granting tenure. She consistently refused to give into demands that she favor minority and women professors in granting tenure.

Rice has broken with President
Bush to endorse race-based preferences in college admissions. Rice said, " I believe that while race-neutral means are preferable, it is appropriate to use race as one factor among others in achieving a diverse student body."

Race-neutral preferable, but use race factors until achieved

When the President decided to submit an amicus brief, he asked for my view on how diversity can be best achieved on university campuses. I offered my view, drawing on my experience in academia and as provost of a major university.

I agree with the President's position, which emphasizes the need for diversity and recognizes the continued legacy of racial prejudice, and the need to fight it.
The President challenged universities to develop ways to diversify their populations fully.

I believe that while race neutral means are preferable, it is appropriate to use race as one factor among others in achieving a diverse student body.

It is important to take race into consideration if you must, if race-neutral means do not work.